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Thursday, January 31, 2013

Hey,
guys! I thought that I would start this blog entry off by posting
the temporary new logo for “The Pop Culture Addict's Guide To
Life”. It'll run from now until Friday, February 15. I thought
that I'd try to make the blog a bit more holiday friendly, so I've
been at work making themed logos for Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's
Day, and Easter, thus far. As we go ahead with the year, I'll be
creating more logos for use. I hope you enjoy it.

The
fact that I even decided to do a Valentine's Day logo for this blog
in the first place surprises even me, as I've made no secret about
disliking everything that the day stands for. So, in this edition of
the Thursday Diary, I work out why that is. Trust me, it's not what
you might think.

Oh,
and the reason why I'm doing a Valentine's Day entry two weeks before
the day actually happens? Well, I have a theme month planned out for
February. You'll find out more about that tomorrow.

January
31, 2013

Is
it just me, or did January just seem to drag on?

I
think part of the reason why January seems to have lasted twice as
long as other months I can remember is the fact that the weather has
been crazier than ever before (I think that this January in
particular seems as though we experienced all four seasons at once).
And the fact that almost every single person that I know had to cope
with cold symptoms or were sidelined by that really nasty flu virus
that is going around certainly didn't make this month pass by any
quicker.

But
tomorrow we're entering the month of February...the shortest month of
the entire year (even on leap years). And, this year, I say bring it
on.

February's
been a month that in recent years has had a lot of meaning for me.
After all, I did get my gall bladder removed in the month of February
two years ago. And because my surgery took place two days before
Valentine's Day, I did end up getting something red for the holiday.

Mind
you it was in the form of a blood transfusion, but hey, I'd rather
have something that can save my life instead of roses, chocolates,
and gold jewelry.

At
least on that particular year, I ended up not hating Valentine's Day
with nearly the passion that I had prior to that event. Though, in
my defense, I was too sore and too weak to really care about what the
day was on the calendar when the day did roll around.

And,
you know, I'll be honest with you...in the last couple of years, I've
been more embracing of the day than I have been. I still don't like
it as well as Christmas, Halloween, or even the civic holiday in
August that was only created because every other month had a
holiday...but I'm more accepting of it.

Hence
the reason why I came up with a Valentine's Day logo for this blog
for the first part of the month.

Prior
to 2011, I hated Valentine's Day with the fire of a thousand suns.
To me, staring at all of those red and pink teddy bears, heart shaped
boxes of chocolates, and lavish bouquets of red roses made me want to
take a flamethrower to them.

And,
you know, to be honest with you, there was a time in which I believed
that the reason behind my dislike for Valentine's Day was because of
my single status. I mean, I'm not going to lie to you, sometimes
being single on Valentine's Day isn't the easiest thing to deal with.
But, at the end of the day, you get through it...even if you find
yourself surrounded by the red and pink foil wrappers of the entire
bag of Valentine's Hershey Miniatures that you ate while watching an
anti-Valentine's Day movie like “Fatal Attraction”.

(And,
don't judge. I'm sure that I'm not the only one who has done this,
and I highly doubt that I'll be the last.)

But
the reason why I didn't like Valentine's Day wasn't so much of the
fact that I was single on Valentine's Day. It's because of the fact
that many people don't seem to understand what the whole purpose of
Valentine's Day is.

I
did a little bit of research on the day, and here's what I found.
Valentine's Day began as a liturgical celebration of a Christian
saint named Valentinus. The story of Valentinus is that he was
imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to
marry, and for ministering to Christians who were persecuted under
the Roman Empire. It's said that during his incarceration, he had
healed the daughter of the very person who jailed him, Asterius. The
legend states that before he was executed, he wrote a letter of
farewell to her, signing the letter “From Your Valentine”.

Okay,
so that legend was kind of morbid...but it also makes a lot of sense
when you compare that legend to how Valentine's Day is traditionally
celebrated. After all, who doesn't remember being a kid in class
stuffing those Valentine's cards into your classmates' Valentine's
Day boxes with messages saying things like “You send me over the
moon, Valentine”, or “Let's Be Best Friends, Valentine”?

It
really wasn't until the mid fifteenth century that Valentine's Day
became associated with romantic love, and evolved into a day in which
lovers expressed their feelings for each other by sending them
confections, flowers, and handmade cards.

Now,
can I tell you the honest truth? I honestly don't even think that
you need the flowers and the chocolates to be able to have a happy
Valentine's Day.

And,
you'll notice that I never mentioned jewelry at all during either one
of those legends. I tell you, I don't care if he went to Jared, or
if every kiss begins with Kay, or if you're being told by Charm
Diamond Centres to buy a sterling silver charm bracelet so that you
can charm your lover off of her feet. The materialistic stance that
jewelry stores take around the fourteenth of February is less than
charming in my personal opinion.

I
guess I just don't understand what makes Valentine's Day so special
that it is the one and ONLY day that we have to show somebody that we
love how much we care about them. We have three hundred and
sixty-five days this year to show a spouse, lover, or life partner
just how much they mean to us and how much we care for them.

So,
you want to know what I think? I think that we should laugh in the
face of the hearts, flowers, and likenesses of Cupid. Seriously,
Cupid is nothing more than a dude in tighty-whities shooting arrows
at random people. If anyone tried that in the real world, I'm pretty
sure that they would end up institutionalized. Let people know that
you're not going to become a slave to the materialistic madness that
includes dinner reservations at overpriced restaurants, using charge
cards to buy an entire truckload of roses, and making twenty easy
payments of fifty dollars to afford the fancy earrings you bought
just because the calendar says it's the fourteenth of February.

However,
if you insist on celebrating the day the way that the people in the
1400s did, might I recommend a few ideas that are a little more
cost-efficient, but still allows you to show your significant other
just how much you care. I know that if I had someone special in my
life to spend Valentine's Day with this year, I most certainly would
be trying some of these ideas out myself. But, again, these are just
suggestions that I've come up with. I encourage all of you to be
creative and come up with your own inexpensive ways.

01
– GO OUT FOR A WALK TOGETHER

I
know it sounds very simple and common, but if the weather permits
(and given how unpredictable February can be, that can be a bit
dicey), it's probably one of the most intimate activities that two
people can share...well, in public, that is. In all seriousness,
sometimes taking a trip down memory lane in some of the places that
mean a lot to both of you can be more sentimental and thoughtful than
spending a lot of dough on disposable stuff. A heart shaped box of
chocolates may last a day...but the place where you shared your first
kiss, or went on your first date? Priceless.

02
– DO SOMETHING TO HELP OTHERS

I'm
a huge believer in giving to others in need. I think that the
feeling that one gets when they donate their time or their money to a
worthy cause is like no other. That's why I recommend that on
Valentine's Day, you and your loved one do something that benefits
someone else. Years ago, I remember one episode of Beverly Hills
90210 in which Brenda and Dylan spent Valentine's Day donating blood.
Back then, I thought it was a bit strange...but now I think it's a
rather ingenious idea. As someone who ironically ended up getting a
blood transfusion on Valentine's Day, I appreciated the fact that
someone took the time to donate their blood so I could have another
shot at life. Wouldn't it be the coolest thing to donate blood with
the person you love? And, besides, you get food and drink after
donating! What could be better?

Of
course, if donating your blood doesn't sound like the best idea,
there's other ways you can donate your time. Volunteer your time
together to a charity, or take the money that you were going to spend
on Valentine's Day celebrations and donate it to a worthy cause, and
stay in for a quiet night in. Trust me, Valentine's Day may be a day
to show each other that you care, but there's nothing stating that
you can't share that love with other people.

03
– MAKE A GIFT

This
is probably one of the best ways to beat the materialism that seems
to be forced down people's throats during the Valentine's Day season.
I'm probably a guy who would appreciate the idea of someone going to
a lot of trouble to make something special that they would know that
I'd enjoy. And, I absolutely love being able to use my creative
skills to come up with gifts that are personal, yet inexpensive.
And, there's no shortage of ideas. You can make them a homemade
Valentine's Day card. If there's a photo of the two of you that you
both love, design and make the perfect picture frame to go around it.
One idea I heard of from an acquaintance was that they grabbed a
photo out of a wedding album, blew it up, had it made into a thousand
piece jigsaw puzzle, and spent the whole night putting it together.
I'm not sure if anyone would have the time to put together a thousand
piece jigsaw puzzle these days, but I must admit I love the idea.
Even a simple activity like baking chocolate chip cookies together is
an awesome idea...and you can eat your creations later on in the
evening.

Just
let your creative side flow. Remember, any gift that comes from the
heart will be well appreciated.

Those are just a few ideas to
consider. If you have any more ways you can take the cha-ching out
of Valentine's Day, feel free to share!

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

I’ve got a confession to make before kicking off
Wednesday’s featured toy entry for this week.It’s more of an admission that I want to get off my chest, and I worry
that by making this admission, it may change the way you all look at me.In fact, you might never look at me exactly
the same way again.But, as someone who
has been more open than he ever thought he would be in this small nook in
cyberspace, I suppose one more confession won’t hurt.

I am a hoarder of pens.

I’m not talking about pens that farmers use to
house their pigs, goats, roosters, and hens.I’m talking about ball-point, felt tip, fountain, gel, calligraphy, and tri-colour
pens.

For as long back as I can remember, I have always
been fascinated by pens.In fact, I
think that I know the exact moment in which I developed my obsession with
pens.But, we’ll get to that a little
bit later in the discussion.

As I type out this entry on my laptop, my
attention is fixated on the container of pens that I currently have stored
nearby.I haven’t exactly counted every
single one of them, but I would estimate that I have at least five hundred of
them on hand.I have pens made by
PaperMate.Pens made by Sharpie.Pens made by Bic.I think that I even have a few pens that have
the Staples logo on them.

And, there’s also something interesting about the
huge amount of pens that I have accumulated over the last few years.If you examine them very closely, there are
only a handful of royal blue pens, and only the occasional black pen.The others are a variety of different
colours.I have red, green, purple,
pink, gold, orange, silver, burgundy, aqua, cyan, magenta, fluorescent yellow,
and even white!

(Don’t laugh at the white pen...it came in handy
one year when I sent out Christmas cards with dark green envelopes.)

A lot of people have asked me what I have against “normal”
pens.They want to know why I insist on
using bright colours whenever I do sign something, or take notes, or any other
activity where one uses a pen and a piece of paper.To set the record straight, I have nothing
against what is considered to be a “normal” pen.I happen to use black pen in many
circumstances.Most financial
institutions want you to validate a cheque using a black pen (because as much
as I want to, I don’t think emerald green would fly).It’s the same deal with filling out important
paperwork for tax refunds, applying for a passport, or filling out a job
application.I’ll also use black pen (or
at the very least, dark blue) when filling out a card of condolence for someone
who recently lost someone close to them.

For everything else, I break out the colour, and
make no apology doing so.When someone
is having a birthday and a card is going around, I sign in colour (in some
cases, if I know that I’m signing something ahead of time, I will try to bring
the person’s favourite colour and sign it in that).Most people who have gotten Christmas cards
from me will attest to the fact that I tend to sign them in various
colours.In fact, there was one instance
in which I actually went to sixteen different stores (including two in the
United States) before I found a pen that had the right shade of maroon to match
the card design on the outside.

(Yeah, yeah...not only am I obsessed with pens,
but I’ve probably given up my “man card” in the process.But, hey, at least everyone who received a
Christmas card from me in 2007 appreciated the effort.J
)

And, I also very rarely use the same colour two
days in a row.Yesterday, I used a light
blue coloured pen.Today, I’ll probably
choose purple.And, tomorrow, I’ll
decide on pink...which will make my pink hating co-worker grimace in disgust.It’s not like I have a shortage of colours to
choose from.I have hundreds of
pens.

But how did I develop such a fascination with
pens?In particular with pens that were
unusual colours?

Well, I think it started right around May
1987.That was the month that I turned
six years old, and my family threw me a surprise birthday party that year.That particular year my birthday fell on
Victoria Day (which meant no school), and the living room was decorated with
banners, party decals, and balloons (as long as they were hanging up out of
reach of anyone accidentally popping them, I was fine with them being in the
room).

I honestly was too young to remember everything
that I got for my birthday that year, as my sixth birthday was well over a
quarter-century ago.In fact, there were
only two major details that I remember from that birthday.The first was the happy face that was made
completely out of balloons (which actually looked very cool).And, the second detail was the fact that I
had gotten this for a present.

Spirograph.The toy that kickstarted my coloured pen habit.

And what a fun toy that Spirograph was too!My Spirograph came with four different
colours of pen...black, blue, red, and green.And, if I remember correctly, the red and green ones were the first ones
to lose all of their ink.I was
absolutely fascinated by the green one in particular, as I had never seen a pen
write in that colour before in my life.Shortly after that, my parents took all of us to the Woolco store on
their famed $1.44 days, where they had a selection of coloured pens on sale
(which included new colours like purple, pink, and orange), and of course, I
used some of my birthday money to buy some of these pens so I could have more
colours at my disposal.

(It’s really scary how I can remember miniscule
events that took place 26 years ago, but can’t remember what I did 2.6 seconds
ago.)

Oh, that’s right...we were talking about Spirograph,
weren’t we?

Everyone who has ever played with a Spirograph
knows how the toy works right?In
addition to the pens, a Spirograph comes with a set of plastic gears and
various shapes that all have jagged edges.When a pen is inserted in one of the holes cut into the gear and spun
around, the force exerted will allow gears that are touching it to spin in a
different direction.

To be able to use the Spirograph the way that it
was meant to be used, you’ll have to get a piece of paper that is placed on a
heavy cardboard backing (this prevents the paper from moving around with the
spinning gears).One of the gears (the
stator) is pinned to the piece of paper, and another plastic piece (the rotor)
is placed so that its gears line up alongside the stator.When the pen is moved, the line that the pen
makes becomes a curve.The pen is
actually used as a method of providing locomotive force, as well as drawing the
intricate curves and patterns that appear on the paper.Though, I will warn you, it takes a LOT of
practice before you can get a design that you’re remotely happy with.

It took me about a year before I learned how to
master my Spirograph...and honestly, I think I would likely need a refresher
course.

But if you have a Spirograph, and have mastered
the difficulty of keeping the momentum going, the payout can be amazing.Just have a look at some designs that were
created using a Spirograph below.

The Spirograph toy was developed by British
engineer Denys Fisher, (taking inspiration from the mathematician who created
the invention known as the “spirograph”, Bruno Abakanowicz).Fisher demonstrated the toy at the 1965 Nuremburg
International Toy Fair, and the design was so successful that manufacturing
began almost immediately.The
distribution rights to Spirograph were bought by Kenner (which in turn was
bought out by Hasbro), and by 1966, Spirograph was marketed as an educational
toy for kids to play with.

Or, for those kids who were just a smidgen too
young to have fully developed motor skills (a.k.a. anyone younger than three),
there was also the toy known as the Spirotot, which Kenner released in 1968.

At any rate, Spirograph was a great toy to play
with...even if I didn’t really understand how it worked.

The Wikipedia entry on Spirograph actually has a
mathematical formula posted within the description, but I decided not to post
it because of the fact that it might bore some of you, and I have absolutely no
idea how to decipher the algebraic code.Mathematics and I do not get along.But, if you’re really curious, or enjoy math, you can click HERE to find
out the mathematical properties.

And, if there’s one thing that I took away from
the Spirograph, it’s that green pens were always cool.I should know...I likely have about a hundred
of them by now.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

It’s Tuesday, January 29, 2013, and the final
Tuesday Timeline of the month.

And this week’s Tuesday Timeline focus is
unique...because I’ll actually be discussing two topics in one date!Think it seems daunting?I thought so too...until I happened to find a
common link between these two subjects.

As always, we’ll start off the Tuesday Timeline
with a look back through other events that took place on this date beginning
with...

1814
– France defeats Russia and Prussia in the Battle of Brienne

1819
– Stamford Raffles lands on the island of Singapore

1834
– Andrew Jackson orders the first use of federal soldiers to suppress a labour
dispute

1845
– Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” is published in “The New York Evening Mirror”

1850
– The Compromise of 1850 is introduced to the U.S. Congress by Henry Clay

1856
– Queen Victoria introduces the Victoria Cross

1861
– Kansas is officially recognized as the thirty-fourth American state

1863
– Great Bear Massacre occurs

1886
– Karl Benz patents the first successful gas-powered automobile

1900
– Eight baseball teams make up the newly founded American League

1907
– Charles Curtis becomes the first Native American U.S. Senator

1916
– Paris, France is bombed by Germany during World War I

1936
– The first inductees of the Baseball Hall of Fame are announced

1943
– U.S. cruiser “Chicago” is torpedoed by Japanese bombers on the first day of
the Battle of Rennell Island

1944
– The Anatomical Theatre of the Archiginassio in Bologna, Italy is destroyed in
an air-raid

1963
– The first inductees of the Pro Football Hall of Fame are announced

1967
– The Mantra-Rock Dance takes place in San Francisco, California

1977
– Actor Freddie Prinze dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at just 22 years
of age

That may seem like an overwhelming group of
celebrities celebrating a birthday.Well, we have two more birthdays to add to that list...and as it so
happens, both of these people share the same exact birthdate.

January
29, 1960.

At first glance, both of these people may seem
like two completely different people.One is male, the other female.One was an Olympic gold medalist during the 1980s, the other was
considered one of the first wave of supermodels.

But they had one thing in common.Both of them ended up HIV positive.And, in the case of one of our subjects, it
ended up costing them their life.As for
the other one...well, they seem to be doing just fine.

These are the stories of two people forever linked
together by one disease.

Today we’re looking back on the lives of the late Gia Carangi and the still living Greg Louganis.

First, the story of Gia Carangi, a model who
appeared to have it all, but ended up losing everything.

Gia Carangi was born on January 29, 1960 in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, the youngest child of a restaurant owner and a homemaker.Gia’s childhood was plagued by domestic squabbles
between her parents, and when Gia was eleven, her mother walked out on the
entire family.As a result of these
problems, many people came to the conclusion that Gia was “needy and
manipulative”, and that she did not receive the motherly attention that she
desperately needed.

It really wasn’t until high school that Gia began
to develop her interest in fashion and modelling.She hung around with a group who referred to
themselves as the “Bowie kids”, who were so obsessed with David Bowie that they
dressed exactly like him, right down to the Ziggy Stardust look that he
popularized in the mid-1970s.Gia was
instantly drawn to the crowd, and idolized David Bowie based on his fashion
sense, and admitted bisexuality...something that Gia herself could relate with.

Her modelling career began in Philadelphia as she
would model for several print ads for newspapers.At seventeen years old, Carangi relocated to
New York City to make modelling a full-time career.Almost immediately, Gia attracted the
attention of famed photographers Francesco Scavullo, Richard Avedon, Joseph
Petrellis, Chris von Wangenheim, and Marco Glaviano.Gia ended up on several magazine covers including
British Vogue in 1979, two Vogue Paris covers in 1979 and 1980, Vogue Italia in
1981, and various issues of Cosmopolitan.Her profile grew so huge that many people considered her to be part of
the first wave of “supermodels”, which included Janice Dickinson and Dorian
Leigh.

But along with the fame that modelling brought was
the temptation within the social spectrum of New York City’s nightlife.Carangi was a fixture at Studio 54, and
frequently used cocaine when she went to clubs.But by the time the 1980s began, her addiction switched to the more
dangerous heroin.And her heroin
addiction was the beginning of her fall from the top.

When Gia’s agent, Wilhelmina Cooper, passed away
in 1980, she took the news hard, and soon she began to use drugs every
day.At photo shoots, she was often
erratic, had temper tantrums, and sometimes even fell asleep at photo
shoots.After being dropped by a
modelling agency after just three weeks because of her dependency on drugs, she
attempted to kick the habit once and for all.But with the death of her dear friend Chris von Wangenheim in 1981, this
sent Gia into a deep depression that was fueled by more drug use.

She was sent to rehab, and upon completing
treatment, she tried her hand at a career in modelling once more, but nobody
would hire her.Her last cover ended up
being a Cosmopolitan cover in the winter of 1982, shot by her friend Francesco
Scavullo, as a gift.

Four years later, Gia Carengi was diagnosed with
AIDS, then a fairly new and misunderstood disease.She died from complications from AIDS on
November 18, 1986 at just 26 years of age.Because of the unknowns of the disease at that time, her funeral was
closed-casket, and nobody from the fashion world knew about her death until at
least 1987.

As for Greg Louganis, he was also born on January
29, 1960 in El Cajon, California.He was
born to a set of teenage parents who gave him up for adoption when he was a
baby.He was adopted by a Greek-American
couple, and by the time he was two, was already enrolled in dance, acrobatics,
and gymnastics!When he was nine, his
family put in a swimming pool, which allowed Louganis to practice diving.

In 1976, Louganis entered his first Olympics, the
Summer Games in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where he won a silver medal in the tower
event.A couple of years later, he won a
gold medal in the 1978 World Championships.His diving accomplishments helped him earn a diving scholarship to the
University of Miami, but transferred to the University of California, Irvine
three years later, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Louganis was set to compete in the 1980 Summer
Olympics, with many people believing that he was a shoo-in for at least two
gold medals.Unfortunately, the United
States boycotted the 1980 games, which prevented him from competing that
year.But he more than made up for it at
the 1984 Olympics, where he won gold in the springboard and tower diving
events.He also won gold medals in the
following championships.

By 1988, Louganis was competing in his third
Summer Olympics.This time, they were
held in Seoul, South Korea.The
expectations were once again high, as everyone expected Louganis to strike gold
once more.What ended up happening was
that Louganis struck something else on one of his dives...and the aftermath
once again brought the disease known as AIDS to the forefront.

When Greg Louganis performed his dive at the
springboard event, he ended up hitting his head during his dive, inevitably
sustaining a concussion.Despite his
injury, Louganis insisted on completing the event.He ended up winning the gold medal in that
event, plus one more, earning him two more medals to his growing collection, as
well as the honour of being named ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” Athlete of the
Year for 1988.

However, what people did not know at the time of
Greg’s accident was that he had been keeping a secret about himself.Six months prior to the Olympic Games, he was
diagnosed as being HIV positive.He
decided to keep it a secret from the public during the games, which was
questioned by several people in and out of the diving community once it was
made public in the mid-1990s.To keep
his HIV status under control, Louganis was prescribed AZT, which he took every
four hours on the clock.

It wasn’t until 1994 that Louganis admitted to the
world that he was gay.And in 1995,
Louganis came clean about his HIV diagnosis when he wrote about it in his
autobiography, “Breaking the Surface”.

As a result of his HIV positive announcement,
almost all of his sponsors dropped him (the lone exception being Speedo), and
he was raked over the coals over the idea that the concussion that he sustained
at the 1988 Olympic Games could have put other divers at risk of contracting
the disease.However, it has since been
proven that the chlorine in the pool would have killed any traces of HIV, and
that only divers with open wounds would have been remotely affected.

As of 2013, Greg Louganis is still relatively
healthy and although his HIV status is still present, it has not yet developed
into AIDS.He took small acting roles, and
has been a key player in defending the civil liberties of those diagnosed with
AIDS.

And, he still has connections to the world of
Olympic diving.Although he no longer
competes, he served as a mentor to the United States diving team in the 2012
Olympics in London.

So, there you have it.Two different people born on the same day,
both diagnosed as being HIV positive (and in the case of Carangi, AIDS).In one case, the disease ended up taking one
person’s life...but in the other case, he was not going to let his HIV positive
status prevent him from living life to the fullest.

Those were the stories of two people born on
January 29, 1960.

Both
Gia Carangi and Greg Louganis’ stories are available to watch in film.Gia’s story can be found in the 1998 HBO film
“Gia”, starring Angelina Jolie.As for
Greg Louganis, his story was made into the 1996 film “Breaking the
Surface:The Greg Louganis Story”,
starring Mario Lopez.

Monday, January 28, 2013

I’m going to start off this week’s edition of the
Monday Matinee a little bit differently this time around.While I do have a movie picked out for
discussion today, I actually want to do a little background story on one of the
movie’s biggest stars.

Have you ever heard of a child actor named Bobby
Driscoll?If not, I completely
understand...his time in the spotlight did happen at least six decades
ago.He was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
on March 3, 1937 to Cletus and Isabelle Driscoll.The family lived in Iowa for the first six
years of Bobby’s life.In 1943, Cletus
Driscoll had an appointment with his doctor complaining of feeling sick, and
the doctor figured that he was suffering from pulmonary ailments from handling
asbestos (his job was an insulation salesman, and asbestos was one of the
leading materials used in insulation at that time).The doctor believed that by having the family
move to a warmer climate, it would help alleviate the symptoms that Cletus was
experiencing, so the family relocated to Los Angeles, California.

Almost immediately after settling down in Los
Angeles, a barber gave Cletus and Isabelle the suggestion that they should
consider getting Bobby into the film industry, and soon after that Bobby ended
up at an audition for the MGM film “Lost Angel”.He ended up getting the part after the
director was charmed by the curiosity and intelligence he displayed while on a
studio tour (he noticed a mock-up ship on the lot and questioned where the
water was).

That role ended up being the first of many roles
for young Bobby Driscoll.Although he
was only six years old at the time, many people in the industry were very
impressed by his natural acting ability and the fact that he could memorize his
scripts quickly, and this lead to him being cast in several other roles.By Bobby’s ninth birthday, he had roles in “The
Fighting Sullivans” (1944), “Sunday Dinner for a Soldier” (1944), “The Big
Bonanza” (1944), “Song of the South” (1946), and “So Goes My Love” (1946).

From there, Driscoll appeared in two more pictures,
“So Dear to My Heart” (1948), and “The Window” (1949), both of which were
critically acclaimed.With the latter
film in particular, the critics singled out Driscoll’s performance, stating
that it was brilliant, and that he ended up being the real star of the
picture.According to the Academy
Awards, they agreed...they honoured Driscoll with a special Juvenile Academy
Award in 1950.Driscoll was just
thirteen when bestowed the honour.

With an Academy Award in his hands, the roles for
Driscoll continued to pour in.His role
as Jim Hawkins in 1950’s “Treasure Island” earned him a star on the Hollywood
Walk of Fame (despite the fact that he lacked a work permit for filming in the
United Kingdom and was forced to leave the production prematurely), and he
voiced the role of a junior Goofy in a couple of Disney cartoon shorts.

And, in 1953, Driscoll landed the role in which
many people claim was his most famous...and on a bittersweet note, one of his
last.But, we’ll get to that in a
moment.

For now, we’re going to be talking about the 1953
Disney animated film “Peter Pan”, which starred Driscoll as the title role.

The film also starred Kathryn Beaumont as Wendy
Darling (she previously voiced the character of Alice in the 1951 adaptation of
“Alice in Wonderland”).Funnily enough,
two other “Alice in Wonderland” actors were cast in roles in “Peter Pan” as
well...Heather Angel and Bill Thompson.

Rounding out the cast were Paul Collins as John,
Tommy Luske as Michael, and Hans Conreid as Captain Hook.As for Tinker Bell, she was modelled after
Margaret Kerry (since in the original Disney film, Tinker Bell never spoke).

It seems hard to believe that the film will be
celebrating its sixtieth anniversary next week.It’s a film that many people (including myself) regard as a timeless
classic.I remember watching the film
for the first time when I was kindergarten aged, thinking that it was a brand
new movie (not knowing that it was released when my own parents were
children).Although, I suppose that most
films that were produced by Walt Disney seem to have that effect on people.

I’m also under the impression that this Disney
film (the fourteenth animated feature produced by the company) had special
meaning for Walt Disney.It had always
been one of Disney’s favourite stories growing up, and he had the idea to
create a film version of the story dating back to the 1930s, around the time he
was working on his animated version of Snow White.The problem was that Disney needed to get the
rights to the story in order to get the project going, and that process ended
up taking four years.By 1939, Disney
got the green light to go ahead with the project, and work began in 1940.

But when World War II intensified in 1941, Disney
was forced to put their movie projects on hold after the United States military
seized control of the studios to make war propaganda films.When the war ended in 1945, the studios
became free to use again, but by then the studios were so far in debt that they
were forced to produce package films to get back above water.The entire process took two years, and it
wasn’t until 1947 that the company found itself back on financial stability.

So, let’s do the math.The idea was coined way back in 1935.The film was released February 3, 1953.It took EIGHTEEN years for the film to be
produced from start to finish.Although
I’m sure most of you who have watched Peter Pan and loved it agree that it was
worth the wait.

Now, I don’t think that you need me to go over the
storyline of Peter Pan.You all know
about Peter Pan taking Wendy, Michael, and John to Never Land.You all know that Peter Pan was responsible
for Captain Hook’s nickname, as a hook replaced the hand that Peter Pan lopped
off during a fight.You know all about
the crocodile that swallowed Captain Hook’s hand and has stalked him searching
for more tasty morsels.You know about
Tinker Bell getting jealous and attempting to get Wendy out of the
picture.You know about Tiger Lily and
The Lost Boys.

And, if you don’t know about them...well, watch
the movie.It comes highly recommended
by this blogger.

This film was a huge success at the box
office.On a budget of four million
dollars, the film made $87,404,651.The
film was entered in the 1953 Cannes Film Festival, and was first released on
home video in 1990.It was reportedly
the late Michael Jackson’s favourite film of all time, and was the inspiration
behind the name of his “Neverland” ranch.A sequel was released nearly fifty years later, “Return to Never Land”,
and several films starring Tinker Bell as a main character have been released
sporadically since 2008.

The film was definitely one of the biggest movies
that Bobby Driscoll starred in.As the
lead character, Peter Pan’s design was even made to look like Driscoll!But as I said before, the movie was also
bittersweet for him, as after that film was made, his life began to fall apart.

By the time Peter Pan was released, Driscoll was a
month shy of turning sixteen, an age in which life begins to open up new
possibilities.But for someone like
Driscoll, who spent nearly his entire childhood making movies, it ended up
being a bad thing.Disney no longer saw
Driscoll as being a likeable young protagonist...instead, they felt that they
could only cast him in roles that called for him being a bratty, young
bully.His contract extension with
Disney was dropped, and within a couple of years, his affiliation with Disney
soon ended.

Once he left Disney, his parents pulled him out of
the Hollywood Professional School (which had several child actors as students),
and placed him in the public Westwood University High School, where he was targeted
by bullies for his previous film career.It was also during this time that he began experimenting with drugs in
an effort to fit in with the other students.After a few months of struggling at the school, he begged his parents to
re-enroll him in Hollywood Professional, and he ended up graduating from there
in 1955.

Though his drug use intensified.In 1956, he was arrested for marijuana possession,
but the charges were dropped.That same
year, he and his girlfriend, Marilyn Jean Rush, traveled down to Mexico to elope
after their parents opposed the marriage.The couple had three children together and stuck it out for nearly four
years before divorcing in 1960.

Driscoll’s problem intensified by the early
1960s.He was arrested for disturbing
the peace and assault with a deadly weapon after he hit someone with a pistol
after they insulted him.In 1961, he was
sentenced and placed in the Narcotic Rehabilitation Center at the Chino
Institution for Men, and upon leaving Chino in 1962, was unable to get any
acting jobs.

In 1965, Driscoll attempted a career in the arts,
actively immersing himself in Andy Warhol’s art community known as “The Factory”.
He was encouraged by Wallace Berman to
create art, and some of his pieces were considered extraordinary enough to be
exhibited at the Santa Monica Museum of Art.But, by 1967, he had left the Factory and reportedly spent the next few
months staying in Manhattan’s underground, without a penny to his name.

On March 30, 1968, three weeks after turning
thirty-one, his body was found by two young boys.The cause of death was heart disease which
was linked to his excessive drug use.His
body was buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave on Hart Island in New York.His mother did not know he had died until late
1969, and the public did not even find out he had died until “Song of the South”
was re-released in 1971.

Not exactly the way that a once-loved child star
expects to die.

In that sense, the fact that Driscoll played Peter
Pan is tragically ironic.In the movie,
Peter Pan didn’t want to grow up.In
real life, once Bobby Driscoll grew up, he had a lot of problems that he could
not overcome.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Can you believe that “American Idol” has been on
the air for nearly eleven years now?It’s
absolutely mind-boggling to me that it has been that long!But despite the turnover on the judging
staff, including the supposed drama between Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey, one
thing that I can give the show a little credit for is discovering some talent
that we wouldn’t normally have seen.It
did bring us Clay Aiken, Kelly Clarkson, Chris Daughtry, Jennifer Hudson, Adam
Lambert, Kellie Pickler, Jordin Sparks, and Carrie Underwood.

Now, all these people auditioned in front of the
panel of judges and had natural talent that helped them proceed further in the
competition.In the case of Clarkson,
Underwood, and Sparks, it helped them win the whole shebang.

Now, if I ended up auditioning for American Idol
(something that I don’t think I can do anyway being Canadian), I know exactly
what the judges would say.Some of the
adjectives that will come flying out of their mouths when it comes to my
singing ability might include “tone-deaf”, “flat”, “awful”, and “delusional”.And, to be fair, I completely agree with
them.When it comes to singing chops, I’m
liable to be voted out of my own shower, let alone the judging panel of a
talent competition!

It’s not to say that I don’t enjoy singing...I
just prefer to do it when there isn’t anybody else around.No need to subject them to something that
sounds like a smoke detector with an almost dead battery.In fact, here’s a true story for you.When I was in the third grade, our music
teacher had us all line up in the classroom and instructed us to sing “Row,
Row, Row Your Boat” in a continuous loop, and as we sang, he would walk down
the line and listen closely to our voices.Imagine my shock when I was one of the first kids he told to leave the
line and stand on the sidelines...though to be fair, I was one of five.

The teacher then announced that it was a little
exercise he planned to see who had the singing chops necessary to join the
school choir...and as for myself and the five other people who were escorted
out of the line, we weren’t good enough to join. L

But, don’t feel too bad for me.In all honesty, the teacher knew what he was
talking about, and I didn’t blame him a bit for his decision (though the other
four who had been rejected kind of gave him a dirty look).No sense leading a person on when they don’t
have what it takes to succeed as a choir singer.I appreciated his honesty.Besides, I more than made up for it when I
joined the concert band as a baritone player in the sixth grade and performed a
solo in the seventh grade when the eighth grade baritone player flaked out of
the concert just minutes before it was set to begin.

So, singing just wasn’t in the cards for me.I can deal with that.I mean, if I were to get a career in the
music industry, I would likely make a better lyricist anyway.

Still, some people just seem to have that natural
ability to blow people away with their singing voices in any situation, and in
the case of today’s subject, this young man broke into the music scene when he
was just in his teens, and ended up becoming a huge presence on the R & B
charts during the mid-1990s.Though his
star ended up fading over time (likely compounded by an arrest in the late
1990s), as of 2013, it seems as though he’s looking to make a comeback in the
music industry.And, you know
something?I think that he still has the
vocal chops to get back into the music industry once more.At least I hope so anyway...I’m getting
somewhat disenchanted with the state of the Top 40 charts these days.

Today, we’re going to be taking a look at the
career of Waxahachie, Texas native Tevin Jermod Campbell, a singer/songwriter
who has also dabbled in the world of acting.

He was born on November 12, 1976, making him
thirty-six years old today.From an
early age, Tevin knew that he wanted to sing, and he satisfied his passion for
singing by joining his church’s choir group singing gospel music.As he grew older, he began to sing solos at a
small town church located near Dallas, Texas.

Certainly, Tevin’s talent was praised by his
family, as well as friends of the family.In 1988, a friend of Tevin’s mother had arranged for Tevin to audition
for Bobbi Humphrey, an accomplished jazz flutist.In a rather unique twist, Tevin performed his
audition via a phone call to Humphrey’s home in New York City!It seemed to work though, as Humphrey was
impressed by the young Tevin’s talent.She arranged to have a video and audio tape commissioned and sent to
Warner Brothers, leading to am meeting with Benny Medina, which in turn brought
Campbell to the attention of Quincy Jones in the summer of 1989.Quincy was very impressed by Campbell’s huge
voice, and shortly after they met signed Campbell to his own record label, Qwest
Records.Tevin Campbell was just twelve
years old when the contract was signed!

Within a few months, Campbell had recorded his
debut single “Tomorrow (A Better You, A Better Me)” to be included in Quincy
Jones’ 1989 album, “Back on the Block”.The song itself just barely cracked the Top 75 on the Billboard Charts,
but it ended up reaching #1 on the American Rhythm & Blues Charts in June
1990!Forget having your first single
become a number one hit...imagine having it happen at the age of thirteen!

Tevin’s debut album “T.E.V.I .N.” was released in
the fall of 1991, and it ended up having a unique distinction.A total of eight singles were released from
the album (at least five cracked the Top 10 on the R & B charts), within a
four year period!It sounds bizarre, but
just have a look at the list of singles from T.E.V.I.N., and do the math!

1.Round and Round (released 1990, #2 R&B,
#12 Billboard)

2.Just Ask Me To (released 1991, #9 R&B, #88
Billboard)

3.Tell Me What You Want To Do (released 1991, #1
R&B, #6 Billboard)

4.Goodbye (released 1992, #2 R&B, #85 Billboard)

5.Strawberry Letter 23 (released 1992, #40
R&B, #53 Billboard)

6.Alone With You (released 1992, #1 R&B, #72
Billboard)

7.Confused (released 1993, #33 R&B)

8.One Song (released 1993, DID NOT CHART)

That is quite a list of accomplishments.Two #1 smashes on the R & B charts, at
least one Top 10 Billboard hit, and eight singles in four years.All before he turned eighteen years of age at
that!And, he wasn’t finished yet!

By 1993, Tevin Campbell’s musical tastes were beginning
to mature (though keep in mind that he was still a teenager at that time), and
he explained in an interview with J.R. Reynolds in Billboard Magazine that he
wanted to make a more mature-sounding album that matched his new frame of
mind.After all, four years had passed
since he recorded his debut single, and he had changed quite a bit in those
four years.I know that my perspective
on life at the age of twelve far differed from the one that I had at age
sixteen, so I completely see where Tevin was coming from.

The name of Tevin’s sophomore album was “I’m Ready”,
which was released in the fall of 1993.The album took around eight months to record (from December 1992 until
August 1993), and was produced once again by Quincy Jones and Benny
Medina.This album also had a number of
high-profile collaborators and songwriters lending their talents to the
effort.Prince contributed several songs
to the album (though it was under the pseudonym of Paisley Park), and Johnny
Gill performed a duet with Campbell on the unreleased track “What Do I Say”.

Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds also contributed a great
deal to the album as well.In fact, of
the five singles that were released from “I’m Ready”, Babyface helped write
three of them...the title track, “Always In My Heart”, and this one below.

ARTIST:Tevin CampbellSONG: Can We TalkALBUM: I’m ReadyDATE
RELEASED: September
30, 1993PEAK
POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #9PEAK
POSITION ON THE R & B CHARTS: #1 for 3 weeks

This song could easily be considered Tevin
Campbell’s biggest hit.I might even
consider it his signature song.The song
reached the top of the R&B charts the week of December 25, 1993, and stayed
there until early January, and even on the Billboard charts, it peaked at a
modest ninth position.The song was also
a hit in Australia, peaking within the Top 20.

And, when you compare “Can We Talk” to Campbell’s
other material, it’s almost as if we’re listening to songs by two different
artists.Aside from the fact that
Campbell’s voice is noticeably deeper in “Can We Talk”, the lyrics and the
melody sound more adult than anything else he released.So, if the aim was for him to broaden his
sound to an older audience, I think he succeeded.

(Of course, this likely didn’t stop the preteen
girls who idolized him in his early days from loving Campbell any less...)

This single was rewarded with a Soul Train Music
Award for “Best R & B Vocal – Male” in 1994.It was also nominated for a Grammy Award for “Best
R & B Vocal Performance, Male”, but lost to Ray Charles’ “A Song for You”.

At any rate, “Can We Talk” helped people take
Campbell seriously, and it was right around this time that Campbell developed a
love for acting as well.He had a bit
part in the 1990 feature film “Graffiti Bridge”, and played a love interest for
Tatyana M. Ali’s character in “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”, but in 1995, he
signed on for two more roles.One role had
him appearing on an episode of “NY Undercover” alongside Brandy (the two would
work together once more when Campbell made a guest appearance on Brandy’s
sitcom “Moesha”).The second role had
him assuming the role of a singer named Powerline, in the 1995 animated feature
film “A Goofy Movie”.Just have a look
at “Powerline” in action below.

So, what happened to Tevin Campbell?

Well, by 1996, people weren’t responding as well
to his music as they had done previously.His third album, “Back to the World” was released in 1996, and the title
track had some moderate success...but the rest of his singles didn’t seem to do
as well.Three years later, when Tevin
released his self-titled fourth disc, it barely made as much as a dent in the
charts.

And then in September 1999, Campbell was arrested
in perhaps one of the most bizarre ways possible when he was taken into custody
by an undercover police officer after Campbell solicited a lewd act from the
cop.It also probably didn’t help
Campbell’s cause when he was also caught with marijuana on his person (which
was – and is in some areas of the world – an illegal substance).

By 2000, Campbell had paid a fine, and attended
Narcotics Anonymous meetings, and participated in a court-appointed AIDS
awareness class...but as far as his music career went, it was more or less a
memory, barring the release of a greatest hits collection in 2001.

But, that’s not to say that Tevin Campbell is
giving up music.In 2005, he landed a
role in the Broadway musical “Hairspray”, assuming the role of Seaweed J.
Stubbs.He reprised the role in the
Australian production of the same musical in 2010 and 2011.

And, on an appearance that he did on “The Mo’nique
Show” in May 2010, Campbell admitted that he was considering making a comeback
to the music scene, and was heard on the remake of Quincy Jones’ “Secret Garden”,
which also featured Usher, Robin Thicke, Tyrese Gibson, and LL Cool J.

Personally speaking, I think that he could do
it.I happened to find a clip of
Campbell singing “Can We Talk” in what appears to be filmed in his home
recorded on June 27, 2012, (which you can hear if you click HERE), and I’ll
admit, he still sounds great.

And, well...if I can make a confession here...I’d
rather listen to his songs from 20 years ago than some of the stuff that passes
as music these days.